Results tagged “education”

Despite the warm reception it got in the apparently more sexually open city of Nanjing, Shanghai's first sex-ed camp for kids fell flat. The course, which opened yesterday for children aged eight to 13, only managed to attract six male students and absolutely no females. It seems many parents were put off by the high cost: 2,880 yuan for just three days and others commented that this style of frankness “conflicts with Chinese people's cultural traditions.” Still, parents of the children who did go said it was worth it. “It's an information explosion age and there is much misleading information on the Internet,” opined one mother. “It's better for kids to be instructed by professionals.” Source: Shanghai Daily

China has worked hard to overcome its brain drain problem. In the past 30 years it has fought to improve the prestige of its educational institutions, uphold the promise of economic growth and prosperity, and provide a prosperous and comfortable environment for its educated elite. But in spite of the country's efforts, a good portion of educated Chinese still seek opportunities for a one-way ticket abroad. According to a Gallup survey conducted in November 2008, one in five college-educated Chinese wants to emigrate permanently to a foreign country.

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs has issued new guidelines on salary levels for foreign instructors at China's many higher education institutions.

You may have noticed two otherwise inconspicuous high school students recently featured on the front page of the Xin Jing Bao (The Beijing News), and if not, you probably noticed that something strange was going on earlier this month. In both instances, the gaokao (高考) is to blame.

• China to expand 9-year compulsory education in ethnic minority regions [Xinhua] "By 2010, more than 95 percent of the population of China's ethnic autonomous areas should have access to the nine-year compulsory education, said the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) released Monday by the Information Office of the State Council."
• Thai Protests Prevent Asian Summit [Washington Post] "Anti-government demonstrators forced the cancellation of a summit of Asian leaders Saturday when they invaded the meeting site in this Thai resort town. The summit was supposed to bring together the leaders of the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, and Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea."
• In China, Effective Treatment Options for HIV, But Stigma Still Lingers [RH Reality Check] "Last year, South African Supreme Court Justice Edwin Cameron described HIV-related stigma in China as a "tragedy" for preventing people living with HIV from accessing what is otherwise a "very good treatment program." According to his data, whilst between 35,000 and 40,000 HIV-positive people in China are effectively receiving treatment, more than twice that number are unwilling to be tested or receive test results because of fear of stigma and remain untreated."

The Chinese government announced that they are going to be making some changes to the simplified character system （简体字） currently used throughout mainland China. According to the Shanghai Daily, the short list of revised characters is already completed and will be released sometime in the near future.

On Wednesday night, a Virginia Tech (维吉尼亚理工大学) graduate student from Beijing was decapitated in a cafe on the campus of the university. Yang Xin, 22-years-old, was starting her first semester as an accounting graduate student. She had only been on the campus for 13 days.

The Philippines have been exporting college graduates to work as domestic helpers / maids in other countries for many years now, but now, their Chinese counterparts are looking to do the same domestically:

Desperate Chinese graduates, facing grim job prospects amid slowing economic growth, are clamouring to find posts as nannies and domestic helpers for the rich in one southern province, state media reported on Wednesday.

Continue reading "Fancy a graduate ayi?"

China and North Korea will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2009 in a 'Year of Friendship', reports AP. Yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao praised 'deep and traditional friendship' between the two nations and said, "The development of bilateral relations not only conforms to the fundamental interests and common will of the two peoples, but also contributes to the peace and stability of the region." What will the two good friends do in this new 'Year of Friendship', you ask? For a crystal-clear answer, let's turn to Xinhua:

During the year of friendship, China is willing to work together with the DPRK to further enhance friendship, promote exchanges and deepen cooperation through a variety of activities, in order to have a better future of China-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations.

The Shanghai Daily reports yesterday that a senior at the Shanghai University of Engineering Science who was accused by his teacher of cheating in an English proficiency test was so distraught he jumped from the fifth floor of his school building. As a result:

The student, Zhang Meng, is now lying in an intensive care unit at No. 1 People's Hospital in Songjiang District, the news Website, eastday.com, reported today.

Continue reading "Student accused of cheating in English test jumps from 5th floor to prove his innocence"

If you've ever wondered how Chinese kids are being indoctrinated with nationalistic bullshit ideals from a young age, here's how. This video shows a class of elementary school students reciting a poem entitled 《2009中国加油》("2009, Go China!") written by their teachers on how a triumphant China is rising against earthquakes and the wiles of evil politicians like Nicolas Sarkozy in "pathetic Europe" with a successful Olympics, the launch of Shenzhou 7 and the "iron will" of its people. Watch it with the Chinese transliteration and English translation from China Digital Times after the jump, but be warned, this is spine-tingling and hair-raising stuff. We find it hard to think that teachers in cities like Shanghai or Beijing would make their kids do the same thing, but then again you never know.

• A 23 year old woman has been charged in Minhang District for attempted extortion for allegedly trying to extort 500,000 yuan from her boss after she saw a love letter on his computer.
• Great news for families of migrant workers here: Children without a Shanghai hukou can now apply to the local education administration to receive education.
• Over 100 fare dodgers on the Shanghai subway were caught and fined the maximum penalty of RMB45 during a four-hour crackdown yesterday. Maybe if the maximum penalty were a little higher, people would think twice next time.

Via Micah Sittig on Twitter we learned of this spreadsheet that compares tuition fees for international high schools in Shanghai. Fourteen schools are included on the list and they range in annual cost from US$11,319 (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation Private School), up 30% from last year, to US$30,689 (British International School), up 7% from last year. The only school whose tuition went down this year was the Shanghai American School, down 7% to US$22,092. Time to stock up on the ol' birth control.

This story caused us to hyperventilate after we realised that it happened right here in what is supposed to be China's most liberal city. Professor Yang Shiqun (杨师群) of Shanghai's East China University of Political Science and Law (which by the way is supposed to be a pretty good uni) was reported by two of his female students to the public security bureau and the municipal education committee for his alleged anti-government and counter-revolutionary ideas. Steve Cotner of The Foreign Expert translates a blogpost written by the professor (which seems to have been removed by Sohu in the meanwhile — read his other less subversive views here) telling his side of the story:

Students Accused Me of Being “Counterrevolutionary”

Continue reading "The Yang Shiqun Case: Political science students report their lecturer to the PSB for 'counter-revolutionary' ideas"

Biology student Xu Peng from Shanghai's Fudan University has emerged winner of the CCTV Cup English Speaking Contest, China's top English-language oratorical competition.

While searching the web for Tianma Shan, we stumbled upon this helpful site by Robin Zhang, "the software designer of JetPhoto." Clicking around a bit, we found this neat panorama of the University of Shanghai (沪江大学) in the 1920s. We also found these current photos of the old University of Shanghai buildings, which are now part of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology [official site | map] in Yangpu District on the Huangpu River. We found this all kind of interesting — we had never heard of the University of Shanghai, which was founded in 1906. We probably should have, since we have a friend who recently graduated from USST. Here's what she said:

Following the death of four female students at the Shanghai Business School in Xuhui District, the Shanghai Education Commission has launched an emergency fire safety campaign to be conducted throughout all schools. Students from the dormitory told reporters from the Xinhua News Agency that the fire extinguishers they tried to use were all way past their expiry date and the griefstricken parents are now blaming the college for the death of their daughters. According to Shanghai Daily, an electric heating stick (used to boil water) that was placed on the blanket of one of the girls caused the fire.

A Renmin University-run, UNAIDS-sponsored survey on AIDS in China was just completed last week, and some of the results were very surprising:
• 30 percent said children suffering from HIV/AIDS should not be allowed to attend school
• 65 percent were not willing to stay in the same room as a sufferer
• 48 percent would not share a meal

The world's biggest children's entertainment company now also wants to play a part in educating your children too — and to be more specific, to teach them how to speak proper English. When we found an ad in the taxi we were in yesterday drawing our attention to DisneyEnglish.com, we thought this was some fake school that had ripped off Disney's name, but when we got home to check it we realised that not only was this a genuine Disney English school, this was the world's very first Disney English school. And it's right here in Shanghai, located on Maoming Lu. For some strange reason, we think this is going to be a huge success in the Chinese market. What do you think?

Welcome to the latest edition of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we bring you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

               

Chinese kids are starting early these days. Someone over at the PCPop.com forum with a nephew attending first grade looked through his textbooks one day and was shocked at what sex education for first graders looks like in China these days — funny cartoons, witty dialogues, testicles that talk to one another, and cool-looking Mr Condoms wearing shades. We wish sex education was this fun for us when we were growing up. No, wait a minute, we don't remember getting any form of sex education back then.

Welcome to the latest episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

ChinaSmack points us to this shocking and sad story of 11 year old student Zhang Yaoyin in Hunan Province who had her had smashed against the desk by her teacher numerous times, then hit savagely with a metal bar before going thrown out of the window of the fourth storey classroom to her death.

Welcome to the latest episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

Welcome to the latest episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

Welcome to the latest episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

This report by France24 throws light on what migrant workers who are resident in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing but lack the proper hukou documents go through to put their children in school. The schools which will accept their children run outside of the state education system and charge a monthly fee of RMB100 — no small sum for parents on migrant worker salaries. Schools like the one featured in this report may soon become a thing of the past though as the government mulls changes to grant children of migrant workers full access to state education.

Welcome to the newest episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese.

Shanghai Daily reports a man killed 3 members of his family in a grocery store on Tongzhan Road, in Jiading's Fengbang Town. It appears he killed his wife and in-laws as a result of a domestic dispute and has since turned himself in. Meanwhile, ChinaSmack informs us that within a few days of the start of the new semester, four middle school students in Shanghai have committed suicide.